A blog launched on the 41st anniversary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), the first pro-life organisation in the world, established on 11 January 1967. SPUC has been a leader in the educational and political battle against abortion, human embryo experimentation and euthanasia since then. I write this blog in my role as SPUC's chief executive, commenting on pro-life news, reflecting on pro-life issues and promoting SPUC's work.

Tuesday, 3 April 2012

The British government must stop its support of China's war on women

Please watch Reggie Littlejohn's powerful video exposing the horror of the Chinese one-child policy. Reggie Littlejohn is President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, a non-partisan, international coalition to oppose forced abortion and human trafficking in China. She is also an internationally acclaimed expert on China’s One Child Policy. She has twice delivered an address at European Parliament in Brussels concerning the One-Child Policy. Her first Address was included as a chapter in the book, Human Rights in China After the Olympic Games, (Human Rights Without Frontiers, 2009), now available on Amazon.com.

**READERS ARE WARNED THAT THE FOLLOWING FILM CONTAINS DISTURBING IMAGES OF ABORTED CHILDREN**

The brutal Chinese one-child policy receives support and funding from the United National Population Fund (UNFPA). Extensive details of this support are listed below. In 2010 the UK was listed as the seventh highest regular donor to the UNFPA and gave the highest amount of what the UNFPA categorise as 'Other contributions'. The UK gave a grand total of US$97,840,118 (£60,573,145.13) to UNFPA in 2010 alone.

In 1979, the very year that China introduced its brutal one-child policy, UNFPA signed a "Memorandum of Understanding" with the Chinese government.

In 1983, the year commonly regarded as the worst year for coercion, UNFPA gave one of its first two Population Awards to the minister-in-charge of China’s State Family Planning Commission. (The other award that year was given to Indira Gandhi, the Indian prime minister, whose government enforced compulsory birth control including sterilisation.)

In 1985, Rafael Salas, UNFPA’s then executive director, told Premier Zhao Ziyang that "China should feel proud of the achievements made in her family planning program." (reported by The People's Daily, the Communist Party's official newspaper).

In 1991, UNFPA's then executive director Nafis Sadik said: "China has every reason to feel proud of and pleased with its remarkable achievements made in its family planning policy and control of its population growth.” (Xinhua, 11 April 1991) In 2002 China's State Family Planning Commission gave Nafis Sadik its own Population Award.

In 1999, UNFPA aided and abetted "ethnic cleansing" by indicted war criminal Slobodan Milosevic by assisting his regime's plan "to limit or forbid the enormous increase of the birthrate in Kosovo".

In 2001, Thoraya Obaid, the new UNFPA executive director, said that over the past 20 years, China had seen notable achievements made in population control by implementing the family planning policy.

In 2001, research by the (pro-life) Population Research Institute (PRI) found that UNFPA was complicit in population control against Muslims in the Chinese province of Xinjiang.

In 2003, UNFPA exploited the aftermath of the war in Iraq to launch a campaign to provide "reproductive health" to Iraqi refugees. ("Reproductive health" is a euphemism which the World Health Organisation (WHO) has defined as including abortion on demand.

It is to our great shame that the UK is complicit in this most tragic abuse of human life. Women's Rights without Frontiers have an ongoing international petition which you can sign today. Please do so. The petition reads:

To the Attention of Chinese Ambassador, Mr. Zhang Yesui

Dear Sir,
We are aware that Chinese authorities are forcibly aborting women to enforce coercive birth limits in connection with China’s One Child Policy. We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned for the suffering caused by these forced abortions and respectfully request that the Chinese government stop this brutal practice.

John Smeaton

About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 39 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.

Acknowledgement

I am grateful to SPUC's staff, supporters and advisers for their help to me in researching, writing and producing this blog.

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